Jump to content

Is she pregnant or could she have parasites


denny
 Share

Recommended Posts

Im genuinely concern for my fish bcs her scales look like their about to fall off & the other fish next to her is how she should be looking. i’m just hoping my conclusion is correct & that she’s pregnant & ready to burst at any moment bcs i feel so bad for her she’s always at the bottom too bcs it looks like she’s having a hard time swimming. 

6961FF28-8D89-4EA0-AC41-705FC7430865.jpeg

EAA7D8E0-DC92-4FA5-8128-5087B32109CD.jpeg

625AFAC7-C105-4C2B-A243-3696A60C04EE.jpeg

6F625EE1-3CD5-4E90-ABB6-17256E87E1B7.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The scales popped out like that is generally not a good thing. I would expect it is sick.

Here are some of the Co-op articles to give you an idea to help diagnose/treat.

here is one about bloating: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/faqs/bloated-fish?_pos=1&_sid=0531b55d1&_ss=r

"Live bearer disease": https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/livebearer-disease?_pos=1&_sid=8819f01a5&_ss=r

Parasites: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/fish-parasites?_pos=11&_sid=8819f01a5&_ss=r

Treatment ideas:

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/how-to-treat-sick-fish?_pos=5&_sid=8819f01a5&_ss=r

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-treat-sick-aquarium-fish?_pos=10&_sid=8819f01a5&_ss=r

You can also search "scales popping" or "scales pine coning" on the forum to see other users issues and treatments.

Edited by Dancing Matt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/28/2022 at 12:19 PM, denny said:

Im genuinely concern for my fish bcs her scales look like their about to fall off & the other fish next to her is how she should be looking. i’m just hoping my conclusion is correct & that she’s pregnant & ready to burst at any moment bcs i feel so bad for her she’s always at the bottom too bcs it looks like she’s having a hard time swimming. 

6961FF28-8D89-4EA0-AC41-705FC7430865.jpeg

EAA7D8E0-DC92-4FA5-8128-5087B32109CD.jpeg

625AFAC7-C105-4C2B-A243-3696A60C04EE.jpeg

6F625EE1-3CD5-4E90-ABB6-17256E87E1B7.jpeg

i think she has dropsy! i researched the popped out scales more thanks to the mentioning of it usually being a sick fish! i’m getting a separate tank for her so she doesn’t infected my other 2 fishes! & i’ll definitely continue to keep a close eye on her thank u!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is dropsy. Dropsy can be caused by a lot of different things. 

Colu has a good thread about helping treat many diseases. 

I recently had a columnaris issue in my 75G. I had a swordtail baby in this tank that had dropsy as well. I treated for columnaris and the dropsy resolved in that fish. Now, dropsy can be caused by a lot of different things. But there's a place to start.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would Qarantine and treat  the most effective treatment for Dropsy is a combination  of Aquarium salt to help reduce the fluid buildup kanaplex in food to treat possible internal bacterial infection and metroplex to treat the water column as it treats aeromonas bacteria  common cause of Dropsy @denny

Screenshot_20210806-030958~2.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Coluquick question, my platy also had dropsy and died today. She was pregnant when I got her 6 months ago but she just kept releasing babies over the course of that 6 months and she never went back down from being swollen and pregnant looking. I didn’t notice her scales had started pineconing until I removed her today (they were definitely not like that last week). Could she have had a pregnancy complication that would’ve caused that or do you think it was more a water quality issue. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/1/2022 at 11:28 AM, DarthRevan said:

@Coluquick question, my platy also had dropsy and died today. She was pregnant when I got her 6 months ago but she just kept releasing babies over the course of that 6 months and she never went back down from being swollen and pregnant looking. I didn’t notice her scales had started pineconing until I removed her today (they were definitely not like that last week). Could she have had a pregnancy complication that would’ve caused that or do you think it was more a water quality issue. 

I know you didn't ask me but...

I would say water quality most likely. This is the #1 reason fish get sick. Make sure to have large amounts of biofiltration and change water when the nitrate goes up to 50ppm or so, sooner if you like. If your water doesn't look super clear you probably don't have good enough biofiltration. What happens is they get infections from bacteria in the water. If caught soon the dropsy treatment is antibiotics in the food or having a vet give it injections. But like this video shows he says the fish is too far gone. Eggbound of course is very different, I found a good video on that too. 

 Dropsy:

 

eggbound:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10156176815130930

 

On 2/28/2022 at 1:14 PM, denny said:

i think she has dropsy! i researched the popped out scales more thanks to the mentioning of it usually being a sick fish! i’m getting a separate tank for her so she doesn’t infected my other 2 fishes! & i’ll definitely continue to keep a close eye on her thank u!

Ya, if she is still eating you could try antibiotics in the food. But seriously that is bad pine coning. 😞

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/1/2022 at 12:56 PM, Wrencher_Scott said:

I know you didn't ask me but...

I would say water quality most likely. This is the #1 reason fish get sick. Make sure to have large amounts of biofiltration and change water when the nitrate goes up to 50ppm or so, sooner if you like. If your water doesn't look super clear you probably don't have good enough biofiltration. What happens is they get infections from bacteria in the water. If caught soon the dropsy treatment is antibiotics in the food or having a vet give it injections. But like this video shows he says the fish is too far gone. Eggbound of course is very different, I found a good video on that too.


😞

I appreciate the help! The only reason I thought water quality wasn’t the issue was because she’s never returned to normal in the 6 months I’ve had her. She came to me pregnant but has had a pregnant belly ever since, and I know there’s supposed to be a period after they have babies where they “deflate” and go back to normal, then usually 30 days later they can get pregnant again. She’s been pregnant for 6 months straight and she’s released like 50-60 fry in that time frame. I did a water test today and the nitrates are pretty high around 40-50 so it’s time for a water change, but none of my other fish seem affected. 
 

As far as filtration, it’s a 40g breeder, heavily planted with stem plants and Java moss, and I have a Seachem 55 filter on there packed with sponges and a pre filter sponge from the Co-op which I clean once a month. The tank is getting very crowded though so that might also be an issue, I’ve gotten rid of some of her fry but at the moment there’s like 7 adult platies and about 50 fry plus some snails and 2 Otos. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my experience, a fish that is bloated that bad is usually not long for this world. The bloat is usually the result of some other, unseen underlying illness. It's still worth trying to save, but I would separate it from the others if you can. If it dies and drifts somewhere unseen the other fish could feast on it and possibly contract the underlying illness themselves.

Edited by tolstoy21
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When your population rises it’s easier to get mini spikes of nitrates. Unless your testing every day (and I’m not advocating for that) you may miss it. Example is you throw a big dinner of blood worms in and the poop load is sky high ‘cause that’s what platys do is poop eventually in the time after the bio filter will catch up but that may give the fish hours of exposure. When you’re overstocked and under filtered you’ll be more likely to have issues. Depending on how much and what ppi your sponge is in the tidal 55 you’re not getting 250 gph, probably like 150-200. So that’s 3-5 x turn over. In an active breeding tank I uses multiple sponges and frequent large water changes to deal with this. In a display I over filter - in my 45 g I have an Eheim 2215 and 2217 as well as a Ziss biobubbler. I want lots of fish I need lots of filtration. I’m at 10 x turnover. I also do large water changes. This is because of my stocking. People will disagree with me but your plants will do a great job - all my tanks are heavily planted - dealing with nitrates but it’s not instantaneous it’s over a period of time. You can check out the info on using lucky bamboo and pothos for nitrogen export which is much faster than our aquarium plants. 
 

In terms of this platy, the always pregnant one, #1 pine coning I’ve never had a fish come back from that I would euthanize and save my other fish, but certainly I’ve got platys that look pregnant or gravid would be the proper term - full of eggs - now their belly should shrink after giving birth. If that doesn’t happen even for a few days there’s something wrong with that platy. Farmed livebearers are notorious for parasites, genetic issues and most would run at the very least the med trio and some salt to get them to poop it out. Big time livebearer people also run levamisole through them. If she was partially egg bound there was nothing you could do if she couldn’t pass the obstruction. 

The females always have a prominent girdle but I can tell a difference after they’ve given birth to some those little firecrackers. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...